US won’t ‘run’ Venezuela, will use oil blockade as leverage: Marco Rubio

Washington: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday sought to clarify President Donald Trump’s assertion that Washington would “run” Venezuela following the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro, saying the United States would not take on a governing role beyond enforcing an existing oil blockade to pressure policy changes.

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Rubio’s remarks, made during multiple television interviews, appeared aimed at easing concerns over a prolonged U.S. intervention or nation-building effort, recalling past American involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan. His comments marked a notable shift from Trump’s broad claims a day earlier that the United States would temporarily govern the oil-rich South American nation.

The secretary of state said Washington’s leverage would primarily come through continued enforcement of an “oil quarantine” already imposed on sanctioned Venezuelan tankers prior to Maduro’s removal from power early Saturday.

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“And so that’s the sort of control the president is pointing to when he says that," Rubio said on CBS’ Face the Nation. "We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking.”

Rubio said the blockade, under which some oil tankers have been seized by U.S. authorities, would remain in place until Washington sees meaningful reforms.

“The blockade on sanctioned oil tankers, some of which have been seized by the U.S., remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela,” he said.

Trump’s repeated pledge to “run” Venezuela, made more than half a dozen times during a news conference in Florida on Saturday, sparked criticism from Democrats and unease among parts of his Republican base opposed to foreign interventions.

Rubio dismissed the criticism, saying Trump’s comments had been misinterpreted by what he described as an entrenched foreign policy establishment.

“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio said. "This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”

Rubio also indicated the United States would assess the actions of Maduro’s subordinates now overseeing governance in Caracas. “We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do,” he said.

While not ruling out a U.S. military presence in Venezuela, Rubio said current American forces in the region were sufficient to intercept drug shipments and sanctioned oil exports.

Trump, speaking Saturday, said, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” He later added that the task would be handled for a limited period by his national security team, including Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “We’re gonna be running it we’re gonna be bringing it back,” Trump said.

The White House declined to elaborate further beyond Trump’s remarks.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown to the United States late Saturday following a pre-dawn operation that removed them from their residence inside a military base in Caracas. The Venezuelan government condemned the action as “imperialist.”